


Asagao Academy: New Transfers

by GenerallyNerdy



Category: Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club, Game Grumps
Genre: F/F, F/M, Game Grumps are a club at Asagao, I didn't want to come up with different names to avoid copyright so fuck you Nintendo, I'm new to this sorry, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags Are Hard, Takes place after best ending in the PBG Route, oh people swear too sorry, other fandoms are mentioned - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-08-15 14:31:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8059966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GenerallyNerdy/pseuds/GenerallyNerdy
Summary: Kevin and Laurel Gorton's parents hit the pacific ocean of luck, and now have money to send them to one of the best schools in the world, Asagao Academy.My plans for this fic is to include different routes, so the ships with Original Character (besides Jimmy) are all possible routes for the maincharacter (Laurel) to go through and will be split into different stories. 10/16/2016- Chapters aren't going to be updated as religiously because of mental health issues, thank you for understanding! I will continue writing and update when I can





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if any characters in the story seem out of character. I'm pretty new to the Fan fiction scene, and I love this game so much I decided to dedicate a whole bunch of time to this. All of the grumps will be like themselves, but not really themselves, like Jon and Ian in the game.  
> I currently have five chapters pre-written, so I'll try to set a release date for the new chapter at the end of the current chapter. Writing is also super hard right now because of other things I do besides school.  
> Also, sorry if the chapters seem short, before it was just a huge story with no chapter breaks, and let's just say it was hard to find places to divide it up.

My eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness of the airport. I continued walking, my backpack pressing against my back comfortingly.  _ Whatever that could be thrown at me, I would handle. You can do it _ . I knew I was telling myself mostly the truth, though I wasn’t sure what about that statement made it feel false. 

I looked up at my brother, his hair messy and eyes still hazed over, a pillow in one hand and his black 3DS stuffed in his pocket. I tried to wake him up as the plane landed, but he just woke up and rolled over, muttering about some girl named Maylene. I would ask him about it on the train if he didn’t pass out again. 

Kevin was a blessing and a curse, a person who forced me to be social, but also understood how hard interaction could be sometimes. He was just always there for me, and it was nice to have such a positive force in my life. I wasn’t the best at social interaction, but he always made sure to include me. He was a good brother. We looked eerily similar, although being paternal twins, and had the same taste in music and entertainment, though being very rare in the sibling world.

We walked from the airport to a train station, the train being our final transit to our new school, Asagao Academy. A Japanese private school was a large jump from an american public school, but since our mom’s store had become so popular around the world, our parents decided to send us to the best school they could afford. This was it. We were transferring in the middle of the year, and apparently so was another group of students “So you won’t feel left out.” the headmaster claimed. I doubted him, but there was nothing I could do about it.

Thank goodness the train station was directly across from the airport or else all of that walking would’ve been hell. We were currently in Higanbana, the closest city to the academy. According to the headmaster, we could go visit on weekends if we so wished. It seemed to spark Kevin’s interest, but I wasn’t as easily persuaded. 

We entered the train station and sat in the waiting area. I pulled out both of our tickets and handed Kevin’s to him. “I would say don’t lose it, but the consequence is walking to the school, so I’m assuming you won’t.” He was slightly more awake now, his eyes once again bright, but his hair still a mess. He laughed, “I very much so won’t lose it.” he then pulled his 3DS out, the bright colors of Pokemon slightly lighting his face.

“Hey, I’m gonna go change.” I said, standing up and waiting for a response from Kevin. He nodded, and I started walking towards a restroom sign. 

I entered a stall, but not before seeing two other teenage girls wearing Asagao uniforms, but instead of the blue blazer I would soon wear, they had orange and grey varsity jackets, on it there was a circular patch with two blue G’s in it. Both were very pretty, the shorter one with black hair that had a streak of blonde in it, an almost sparkle to her, and immaculate makeup, while the taller one had soft-looking pink hair and pale blue eyes. They seemed friendly enough, though that could be very wrong considering I had no idea who they were. I changed into my uniform silently, unable to stop my eavesdropping.

“Maybe they’ll let you bring your bird next year, I know they let Jon bring Jacques when he transferred.” 

“I hope so, but wasn’t Jacques a robot? Lieutenant Feathers isn’t a robot, and I don’t want to sneak him onto campus, getting in trouble…” I couldn’t hear her continue as they both leave the restroom.

I finished changing and exited the restroom, walking back to Kevin. The uniform seemed to fit me perfectly, I liked the yellow and teal color scheme. The only problem I had was the shoes.  _ These are gonna blister like a bitch. _

I tossed the backpack to Kevin, disrupting his concentration from his game. It spooked him, but still fell in his lap. “Come on Laure, I’m just about to defeat this gym.” I looked at the clock on my phone. I shook my head, “The train is going to be here in fifteen minutes, and I’m not gonna wait for you.” After our twelve hour flight, I was feeling exhausted.  _ Hopefully I can get rest on the ride there. _

“Fiiiiine,” He lengthened out the i as he stood up pulled my laptop out of the backpack, slinging the backpack over his shoulder and continuing to battle on his way to the bathroom. 

I opened my laptop, the screensaver being pictures of my cat and dog, sometimes together, but mostly on their own. I logged in and the beautiful background art of Steven universe taking up the desktop. I opened up the browser, my Pottermore homepage still open. I opened a new tab and closed Pottermore, and went to my google drive. I was working on a story about angels, war, and beliefs in general when I saw movement towards me. 

I looked slightly up to see a tall boy, wearing the same jacket as the girls in the bathroom, he had a sharp jawline and a messy poof of frizzy hair around his head. I related, almost anything made my hair frizzy because it was so thick. I tried to smooth down the mess slightly as he got within ten feet. 

“Hey, I’m Dan. What’s your name?”

“Laurel, uh, nice to meet you.” I was still sitting down while he stood about a meter in front of me. There were a few seconds of silence until he spoke again.

“So, my friends and I noticed you were wearing an Asagao uniform, are you transferring?”

“Yeah, my brother Kevin and I are.” I looked around Dan at the restroom and saw him leaving. I pointed at him, “That’s him.” Dan turned to look at him, then he pointed to a group of people all wearing matching jackets, “Those are my people.” in the huddle I saw the two girls from earlier. Dan turned back to me and smiled.

“We were wondering if you would like to wait for the train with us, but obviously your brother can come too.” he laughed slightly, as if he knew he told a bad joke. I half smiled so he wouldn’t feel completely awkward. I wasn’t giving him much in the conversation to work with, and I could tell he was struggling. 

“Uh, sure. I’ll be over in a bit.” The story would have to wait. 

“Sweet, I’ll introduce you guys to everyone once you come over.” He started to walk away and I shut my laptop. Kevin came over, quickly moving in with the questioning. 

“Who was that?” He said as he passed me the backpack and loosened his tie. I stuffed my laptop in on top of our normal clothes. “He said his name was Dan. He wants us to come over and sit by him and his friends.” I slung the backpack over my shoulder and grabbed my ticket off of the seat next to me. “Apparently they’re transferring in with us.”

Kevin raised his eyebrows and smiled “Did you think he was hot?” I rolled my eyes and smiled slightly again as a response. Kevin continued, “From what I saw he was pretty good looking, do you think he would be into this?” Kevin posed, imitating Justin Beiber’s Calvin Klein photoshoot. I laughed, “I dunno, I wasn’t getting that vibe off of him. There’s a very low chance he’s gay, he might be bi, though he seemed like a straight one to me.” 

Kevin shrugged, “You can’t win every battle. Let’s go.” I stood up and we started walking over to them. Other than the girls I had seen in the bathroom and Dan, there seemed to be four other people. 

Sitting next to Dan was a slightly bigger guy compared to Dan’s skinny frame. He had some stubble that looked like it had taken a while to grow, and brown hair down to where his mid-neck, with a blonde streak in it just like the girl with black hair from the bathroom. 

She actually was sitting on his other side, deep in a conversation with a boy about my height with brown hair that seemed intentionally messy, but was also neat in a way, who had a beard and seemed to be in a personal war with his uniform’s tie.

Across from him was another boy, nose in a quantum physics book.  _ Is he studying already? _ Even though he looks about a year older than me, he had some salt and pepper hair mixed into the neat pale brown. His eyes were intensely focused on the book, and everyone seemed to be adjusted to his behavior.

Next to him was the last person I didn’t know, talking to the girl with pink hair. He seemed to be the epitome of the shit-eating grin. He seemed the most comfortable in his uniform, probably coming from a richer family. He had blue eyes and brown hair in a slightly longer short haircut, long enough to naturally swoop to his left, but short enough to not reach past his earlobe. 

Dan saw us coming over and waved, getting up so he could properly introduce us. He went between me and Kevin and put his hands behind our backs, leading us towards the group. Once we got close enough, he started introducing us to everyone. 

“Okay, this is Arin,” The boy with the blonde streak in his hair responded “Hey.”

“that’s Suzy,” the girl with black hair smiled “Hello!” I recognized her voice as the girl who mentioned a guy named Jon in the bathroom.  _ That blonde streak probably means something, I guess I’ll worry about it later. _

“He’s Barry,” the boy with the beard smiled at us and waved slightly.

“That’s Brian, we’re in a band together actually.” The boy with the textbook raised his hand for a second in response then turned the page.

“She’s Holly,” the girl with pink hair smiled warmly at us,

“And that fucktart is Ross.” The last boy pulled a shit-eating grin and snapped finger guns at Dan. The bitterness of Dan’s introduction to Ross confused me slightly, but then I realized that was the way their relationship was. Kevin was very much the same way occasionally, I’m almost positive he called every person he had a crush on an idiot at one point.

“I’m Laurel, and this is my brother Kevin.” I pointed to him with my thumb. “We’re gonna be jun-”  _ not America _ “we are,” I paused for a second, trying to remember what a high school junior translates to in Japan. “Third years.” Kevin interrupted, sensing my struggle.

“You’re in our year!” Holly said happily, “Dan and Brian aren’t, they’re the year ahead.” Dan sat down again next to Arin, and Arin said “Sit down guys, we’ve got a bit of time before we have to get on the train.” Brian looked at the clock quickly between pages and sighed, “Actually we should be getting on the train. Five minutes until departure and we don’t want to be late.”

Everyone but Brian, Kevin, and I groaned. “But it's so comfyy.” Barry complained, stretching out the “Y”. Once everyone stood up I really realized the height differences between the group. I knew Danny was taller than me, about as tall as Kevin, but Arin was around that height too, while Barry, Holly and I were almost the exact same height, Ross and Brian being just a few inches taller. Suzy was the shortest, making me feel slightly incompetent. I’m usually the tallest or one of the tallest, but I felt unusually small among this group. I usually felt shorter around males though, they just can’t seem to stop growing. Barry’s shorter stature gave a small boost to my self-esteem though.

We all walked in a herd towards the platform and held our tickets out for the conductor. Everyone seemed to be in a compartment already once Kevin and I got on. Only four people could comfortably fit in a compartment, so somebody would have to go by themselves. Brian seemed to willingly volunteer to be alone, going into a compartment and closing the door behind him, opening his book as he entered. I looked at Dan and he shrugged, saying “He probably wants to be by himself so he can concentrate anyway. Dan entered the compartment Barry was in, Ross, Arin, Suzy and Holly all in the other one. Kevin entered the compartment behind Dan and I followed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Onto chapter two! I'm thinking now that I'm going to upload a new chapter every five days if I have a chapter after that pre-written, and then give myself a week to write a new chapter if I don't have a new one pre-written. Thanks for all the support so far!

Dan and Barry sat on opposite sides of the compartment, Kevin sat next to Dan so I sat next to Barry. After a few moments of silence, Kevin broke it. 

“What’s with the jackets? Don’t the rules say you have to wear this stiff blazer?” Kevin tried to stretch his arms upward, being stopped by the blazer. “See what I mean?” Dan nodded, “I would hate having to wear one of those.” Barry added, “Me too. It’s killing me to not be wearing a flannel right now. But we’re a club, called the Game Grumps. I was one of the original members actually.”

“Yeah,” Dan smiled, “We play videogames at tournaments in the local area. We heard that there were two other teams here, and how openly they were accepted around the school. We all had enough money or could get scholarships, so we thought we might as well come.”

“Actually our friend Jon formed another club there when he transferred.” I nodded, “So what do you guys play?” Dan responded, “I’m good at older console beat-em-ups like Mike Tyson’s Punchout, and Barry and Holly make games together.” Barry nodded, adding, “I do programming while Holly does art and story stuff. I do play a lot of other games though.”

Kevin smiled, “So you guys just play video games and mess around?”

“Pretty much. There’s also a lot of dick jokes that happen somewhere in the mix.” Dan responded. 

“So have you played Pokemon?” 

“Not really.” Dan responded. Barry smiled, “Really only the first gen.”

“Well I have something to teach you Danny boy.” Kevin responded, pulling out his 3DS “I’m battling the third gym and it’s been a rough time, so I’m going to teach you how to play in the meantime so I can level my scrubs up.” 

I started to doze off while Kevin was talking. Being up for twelve plus hours since eleven last night was really starting to hit. I hadn’t completely fallen asleep either the night before due to nervous energy. I felt a tap on my shoulder from Barry. I looked at him, eyes heavy. Barry was smiling, “You’re tired, aren’t you?” I nodded and shrugged, “That’s what a twelve hour flight does to you. Sorry if I’m bothering you, I’ll try to stay awake.”

“No, it’s fine.” He responded, “I was actually going to suggest you sleep. You can use me as a pillow if you want, but we did just meet ten minutes ago.”

“I was thinking backpack as a pillow, as long as you don’t mind my legs on your lap.”

“Well from what I suggested yours is pretty tame.”

“I don’t wanna go drooling on someone I just met.”

“Wasn’t complaining, just giving permission.”

“Could you two please be quiet? I’m trying to teach Dan here about the glory of evolving.” Kevin interrupted my back and forth teasing conversation with Barry. Barry and I both blushed slightly, but I laid down, very careful to not accidentally flash everyone. Another downside to skirts.

I dozed off again to watch Dan listen intently so Kevin would feel appreciated. I understood how hard it was to get into pokemon if you weren’t raised on it. I partially was, but only because Kevin loved the games so much. 

The world turned dark for a while, and then I was shaken awake by Kevin. “We’re here Laure.” I slowly sat up, making sure to tuck my skirt under my legs as I did so. I grabbed my backpack and put it on, feeling that comforting weight on my back again. I walked off the train with the others, still sticking around Kevin as he continued talking to Dan, his eyes lit up with excitement.

Dan probably didn’t care about it much at all, but he seemed to realize how important it was to Kevin. Or maybe I was reading too much into it. Suzy walked up beside me and started up a conversation. “Hey, where are you from?” 

“Midwestern America, why?”

“You didn’t really have an accent. With Ross you can tell he’s from not Japan, but you didn’t really have one, so I was just wondering.”

“Oh, where are you from?”

“Well, here really. Barry, Arin, and I all live in the same city a few hours away, everyone else moved towards the area, and we ended up at the same high school.”

“So that’s how everyone joined the club then?”

“Oh, Barry and Dan told you about the club? Yeah, at the beginning it was just me, Barry, Arin and Jon. Then Jon came here, and Ross, Holly, and Dan joined. Brian wasn’t really into the whole idea of being in the club considering he didn’t do much gaming, but Dan eventually persuaded him.”

“It’s really cool how all of you are friends.” When I said that Suzy looked concerned, “Is that different from what you’re used to?”

“No, I have friends back home, it’s just cool how you all understand and work off of each other so well. From what I’ve seen there’s no reason for me to think any of you have any underlying issues with each other, and can work off of each other's strengths and weaknesses with ease. I’m probably reading too much into things though. Sorry, I can overanalyze a whole lot without meaning to.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s pretty much true. Hopefully the roommate situation doesn’t really mess anything up too badly.”

“I dunno, I would assume they planned for how many people they had at the beginning of the semester. Maybe they left some rooms open for transfers just in case, but I doubt it.” 

The herd of us ended up at the office around eleven fifty. The office wasn’t prepared for all nine of us to arrive at the same time, so they quickly passed out room keys and schedules. None of us knew where we were going, so they quickly told Arin, Brian, and Ross (Who were in the front of the herd) the simplest directions to the cafeteria. We were to ask someone named Jirard for a tour around campus. I don’t know how one person could handle all of us, but hopefully I would actually learn something.

I fiddled with my backpack straps. I felt out of place. Though I was in the middle of this group, I wasn’t one of them. I barely knew them. Kevin seemed to fit in so easily, switching his focus from Pokemon with Dan to Portal with Barry. 

Kevin wasn’t great at video games, his exasperation with the last levels of the first portal game being the reason he had never moved on to the second. “I can never just get the speed right!” I remember him muttering to the desktop we named Ralph. He really liked story games, like myself, but he was also pretty good at open world games like Sims and Minecraft. He barely ever spoke about them, deeming them “not cool enough”. 

I personally never viewed it as a skill I needed, and I preferred reading out what was going on and having content easily accessible compared to having to boot up the computer, then the game, and then get to the story. The pictures were nice and all, but I could make those just as easily with a bad drawing or my imagination.

We entered the cafeteria, the grumps somehow instinctually getting into a V formation, with Arin and Dan at the front. Kevin and I stood off to the side slightly, observing mostly what was going down. Not a lot, but as we entered I felt a slight tension in the room. As we entered the room seemed to quiet down as people noticed the entering club.

We looked over at a table close to the doors, about six boys with yellow varsity jackets sitting in a circle. Ross broke off from the V formation, “I’ll go see if they know Jirard, I’ll be right back guys.” Ross went over to the table, and though none of us could hear what he was saying, we could sense that some members of the group didn’t enjoy his presence there. 

The shortest of the boys, who had black hair and a green book in his hand, and another with swoopy hair and black earrings both were unamused, the shortest boy seeming more worried than disappointed though. The tallest with slight stubble and a snapback pointed over to a table. As we all looked, we saw another group, this one with green varsity jackets though there were a lot more people at their table.

Ross walked back, pointing at the table again, “That’s where they said he would be.” Arin nodded and led the way, the rest of the group following. How they seemed to fit into such a daunting formation so easily was beyond me, but it seemed to work for them all the same. 

There were only a few people there, three boys and a girl. I could see her pink hair across the room. It was a harsher color than Holly’s and drew a lot of attention to her. We got closer and I noticed all of the people there were wearing green varsity jackets.  _ It’s almost laughable how many  clubs they have at this school. They’re probably making hundreds from those jackets.  _ I could see the small group as I got closer, and I could see the girl’s square glasses and red bow in her hair as we arrived. 

A few seats away from her was a tall boy, his shirt unbuttoned to his lower sternum. He was very good looking, and possessed a sheen around him like Suzy’s that made him look like he was sparkling. A few seats away was a boy with a brown mop of hair on his head, a beard mostly focused on his chin, and soft brown eyes. Then next to him was another boy, his face seemingly stuck in a perma-smile, with brown hair and eyes like his neighbor, but more put-together and with a full beard. 

The boy with the brown mop stood up dramatically as he saw us approach. Barry and Suzy waved while Arin started running. I could see the others smiling as Arin and the other boy met in the middle of the lunchroom, almost leaping into a huge bear hug. Barry and Suzy followed, hugging the two, their faces all grins. 

As we approached the quartet the boy (who must of been Jon) looked up, “Who are all of your friends?”. Arin smiled, “Dude, a whole bunch of people joined after you left. As Arin went through the names I started to get nervous.  _ What about Kevin and I? _

“And that’s Kevin and Laurel. They aren’t in the club, but they’re cool. They transferred with us.” Kevin and I both half smiled, “Hey.” Kevin said as I nodded to Jon. Jon smiled, “Do you guys know where you’re rooming yet?” Holly shook her head, “We don’t even know where the dorms are yet.” 

“Really? I’ll grab Jirard then.” as Jon turned around I noticed more people in green varsity jackets at the table. They were talking close together, like they didn’t want us to hear them.  _ Oh great. _ Jon poked the other brown-haired brown-eyed boy and brought him over. They walked over, the boy who must be Jirard’s smile even brighter than it was before. 

“Hey guys!” He said as they got closer. “I’m Jirard. It’s nice to meet you all. So Jon told me you need a tour?” Pretty much all of us nodded. “Well you came to the right place!” Jon interjected suddenly, “I’m gonna eat lunch. You guys have fun!” He walked away quickly, and sat back at the table, joining in the hushed conversation with the others. 

“Okay, so this is the cafeteria. They serve different food every day, and try to get as much range in flavor as possible for the students from all different parts of the world....."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Remember, feedback is super duper appreciated, so please give some!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the longest chapter so far! Buckle your seat belts, we're going into exposition land!!!

I paid attention as well as I could with Kevin and Barry making horrible puns next to me. Very very occasionally there would be a good pun, so I would add a smile and an annoyed sigh to their conversation. They compared schedules and they were roommates, so it was good that they were getting along. 

Kevin perked up when Jirard mentioned sports teams, his friend PBG being on the soccer team specifically. “Is there a swim team?” He quickly interjected, catching Jirard slightly off guard. “A pretty small one, yeah. Since the team is so small they have to go into town to practice, but there is one.” Kevin smiled, “Sweet. I would have to sign up at the office, right?” Jirard nodded, “Yep. Do you swim?”

“Yeah, but I only swim free.” My eyes seemed to roll themselves.  _ But Haru can actually  _ sprint _ freestyle.  _ The reference seemed to go over everyone else’s heads as we continued to Poppy Hall.

“This is Poppy Hall. Everyone has class in here, and considering class starts in about,” He checked his phone for the time, “ten minutes, I think that’s where we end the tour for now. I’ll bring you guys to your classrooms.” he turned to address Dan and Brian. “You two are in my year, right?” Dan gave a thumbs up, “Yeah.” Jirard smile widened again, for what seemed like the fifteenth time. “Sweet! Well let’s go.”

He led us in and he pointed us down a hallway. “Your classroom is the first one on the right. Have fun!” He waved and led Dan and Brian up the stairs. We filed in, an almost hush falling over the other students as we entered. The boys in yellow jackets, specifically the one with earrings, and the other with a snapback were the only ones that looked familiar to me.

Almost everyone was already in their seats, the need to talk overcoming them again, with eleven seats still open.  _ This class was either small to start with, or some people failed out because without us, this is a maybe ten person class. _ We filed in, and I sat in the section next to the windows, second row, first seat in. I hung my backpack on the side of the desk as Kevin sat on my left, while Ross, Arin, and Barry took the seats in the middle section next to us. Then Holly and Suzy sat in front of Kevin and me, filling in as many empty seats as we could.

A minute before the bell rang four green jackets and two yellow ran in, the girl with pink hair holding hands with the tallest green, a pretty ginger girl on her other side. They went to their seats, Jon smiling to us as they sat down, a green with blue eyes and light brown hair next to him, then the tallest green with brown moppy hair behind Jon. 

The two yellow jackets I remembered from earlier, snapback looking at Kevin and me confusedly, but then continued and sat down. The second yellow jacket had the familiar black earrings from before and looked completely annoyed with the rest of the world and especially us.

“That’s my seat.” He pointed at the desk Kevin was sitting in, his voice surprising me and Kevin. “Oh, uh, sorry..” Kevin trailed off, “Ian.” The boy said tiredly as the teacher came in. Kevin stood up and I started to stand when the teacher slammed her books down to hush the students. 

I sat down quickly, not wanting to get in trouble on my first day.  _ Dammit.  _ Kevin had already sat down next to Barry, leaving me with Ian next to me.  _ Just wonderful. _ I slowly slid lower into my seat. 

The teacher seemed angry with the day already, her amber eyes annoyed. She quickly and angrily introduced herself as Ms. Shizuka and called our group of transfers up. We stood in a line and quickly said our names and some basic information.

“My name is Arin Hanson, I voice act and animate, things like that.”

“I’m Suzy Berhow, I taxidermy bugs in my spare time.”

“I’m Ross O’Donovan, I draw and animate a lot.”

“I’m Barry Kramer, I’m taking a video editing class, so you’ll see me there.”

“My name is Holly Conrad, and my family rescues birds.”  _ You’re up Laure. _

“Uh, I’m Laurel Gorton, I transferred from the U.S., and like to write.”  _ Why did you say so much? They don’t want your life story. _

“I’m Kevin Gorton, and I swim, sing, and act.”

The grumps bowed to the class, and went back to their seats.  _ Is that a Japan thing? That’s probably a Japan thing.  _ I sat down begrudgingly in my seat. 

Shizuka went back to the front of the classroom, hand pinched on her nose where it connected with her eyebrows. “None of you have your books, do you?” We shook our heads in our seats, my eyes quickly looking down. 

“No notes? Anything? Am I supposed to do all the work for you then?” Kevin and I didn’t know what expectations for students were like at a private school at all, let alone in Japan. Were we supposed to answer her or not?

Kevin answered. “Miss, we arrived about forty minutes ago and didn’t have time to get them--”

“Forty minutes sounds like a lot of time Mr. Gorton.”

“Well we didn’t mean to--”

“Mr. Gorton, do you want to wait after class? Because you can if you keep on mouthing off to me. Understand?” 

I looked down. The feeling of being happy that you weren’t getting in trouble was mixed with the disappointment in myself for feeling happy in my chest. I  _ did not  _ want to get in trouble, and helping him here would just dig us into a bigger hole. 

Kevin nodded and slunk lower into his seat. That would be a hard first impression to get over. I tried to look at him, but he was too far away to make eye contact with, let alone speak with expressions.

“Since you don't have books, others will have to share.” Miss Shizuka snapped. Jon passed his book up for Arin and Ross, while the ginger girl walked hers over to Suzy and Holly. The boy in the SnapBack next to.. Ian.. and I passed his book using other people to Kevin and Barry. I was the only person who didn't have one. 

There was a sliding noise next to me, I turned to look at it, Ian putting his book between the both of us.  _ At least he’s being nice. _

“Turn to page….” I tuned her out as Ian turned the pages.  _ Good thing I'm a fast reader.  _ I scanned the pages,  _ this is a very unusual topic to be covering, but okay.  _ This felt easy, so maybe this school year wouldn't be as hard as my other ones. 

The rest of class went in a blur, the fact that we weren’t changing classrooms making me slightly tired. Getting up when class was over helped me keep my blood pumping back in the U.S..  _ It shouldn’t be that hard to adjust. _ I yawned again. 

“You have fifteen free minutes to start homework before the bell rings.” Shizuka finished her lecture with. “Transfers, make sure you get the required books for class tomorrow or there will be a punishment.” She sat in her desk in the front of the class and started working on some papers she brought with her. Everyone was either working on their homework or chatting. 

“Hey guys,” Jon grabbed the attention of Arin and Ross. I tuned into the conversation also, hopefully not intruding. “this is PBG,” Jon pointed his head at his tall neighbor, “and this is Shane.” He presented the blue-eyed boy. PBG continued the trend of brown hair, his still being long but having a slight swoop to it. He had a beard mostly concentrated on his chin, and green eyes like the leaves when it rains in a forest. 

“So are you guys another gaming club or whatever?” a girl with short black hair and red eyes sitting in frost of Ross asked Arin. “Yeah, why?” He responded. “No reason.” Her eyes narrowed and she turned around again to her friend with dark red hair in a cute ponytail and glowing pinkish red eyes.  _ Weird. _

“Are you guys planning on joining the Autumn tournament?” PBG grabbed Arin’s attention again. “Well now that we know there’s a Autumn tournament, probably. We would just have to assign events to people and get a clubroom, and then we’re up for it.”

“It’ll be nice to have some new competition this year.” PBG added, “We just got a new team member, so Hidden Block is going to have a hard time keeping up.” 

“So Hidden Block is the yellow jackets?” I asked, surprising PBG and Jon slightly, but PBG quickly responded. “Yeah, their group is a lot smaller than ours though. We’ve got ten compared to their six. How many do you guys have?”

“Seven.” Ross answered, “What are the events?”

“Retro games, DDR, completion speedruns, game creation, puzzle games, beat-em-up, Mario Kart, and pinball.” Jon answered, numbering them off on his fingers. “We’ve got a person for each, but you guys might have to double up events. Hidden Block does most of the time.”

“What games are being played in the unspecified categories?” Ross asked.

“They haven’t told us yet, but will at the end of the week.” 

“Sweet.” The bell rang and people got up from their seats. As everyone left the classroom Holly, Suzy and I were confused of where to go. The ginger girl and the girl with the pink hair came up behind us. 

“Hi! I’m Mai!” The ginger said, smile wide. “You guys must be the new transfers, Hana transferred at the beginning of the year.”

“Do you need help finding your rooms?” The girl with the pink hair who must’ve been Hana asked. “I know how intense transferring can be, though I can’t imagine from a completely different country.” Hana meant me, but I wasn’t used to being noticed first in a crowd.

“Uh, yeah. I really have no idea what’s going on here.” I responded, swinging my backpack onto my back. 

“We can help with that!” Mai hit me on the back, friendly with her intentions, but against my skinny frame it felt like the weight of the world. She was very very strong, probably even stronger than Kevin, and he swam almost daily. “Oh sorry, I’ve been trying to discover my own strength and it hasn’t been working so far.” I nodded, “It’s fine, it just caught me off guard. You don't play sports, do you?” Mai started walking as she answered, so I followed her. “Volleyball,” she mimed serving a ball, getting the motion perfectly. “I'm pretty much the best on the team.” She said proudly. Hana and Holly were talking about something, and Suzy moved forward to ask Mai questions about the school, so I watched the landscape around us. 

The leaves were just starting to change, the warm air of August escaping towards the south while chilly September wind would soon move in.  _ What’s the date? It’s tuesday, so--the 30th? That sounds about right.  _ I looked around, not seeing the boy who I usually shadowed.

_ Where’s Kevin?  _

He was exiting the school with Ross and Dan a bit behind us. I couldn’t tell what they were talking about, but as Kevin was walking out he ran into a boy who looked a lot younger than us. He had neatly styled brown hair, and a mole on his left cheek by his nose. They looked at each other to apologize and once their eyes met, they both froze.  _ Oh jeez.  _ Dan and Ross  stopped when Kevin had, but now they shared a knowing look and continued walking. 

As a blush dusted both Kevin and the boy’s cheeks as they started talking. Dan and Ross caught up to us, and they noticed me watching him. “We’ve lost a brave warrior today.” Ross said jokingly. Danny hung his head, “He will surely be missed.” I giggled slightly, keeping up with the group of girls. 

“Do you guys even know where you’re going?” I asked.

“Not really,” Dan responded, “but it should be pretty easy to find someone who does.” Danny looked over and saw PBG’s head at the same level as his own. “Like him.” Ross and Danny broke off, going over to PBG and showing him their room numbers. I followed Mai, Hana, Suzy and Holly into the Primrose dorm, the soft pink color softening my eyes from the bright outdoors. 

“So what rooms are you guys in?” Mai asked, cocking her head to the side. Holly, Suzy, and I all pulled out our room keys, comparing the numbers on the keychain. 328. “That’s a few doors down from ours.” Mai said, “We can help you with setting up your things.” 

We walked up the stairs, cutting through crowds of people on the way up. We got to the third floor and headed left, walking until we reached the end of the hallway next to the bathrooms. The cold, gold numbers on the door signaled to us that this room is where we would be staying for the rest of the year.

Holly got out her key and unlocked the door, pushing the door into the room as wide as possible so all of us could see.

It was a mostly square room, with a small pushed out area on the far wall with windows and two leather chairs. The room had a bunk bed with a white frame in the far right corner of the room, a similar frame single bed in the opposite corner. Each bed had a single pillow, white sheets and a light blue duvet cover. There were shelves above the single bed and drawers on the bottom of it, then a dresser and mirror set next to the bunk bed. Across from it on the other wall was an empty closet with a wooden screen door. Finally, on either side of the door were white desks, with overhanging lamps on each. 

My suitcase was set next to two others (which I assumed were Holly’s and Suzy’s) in between the two beds. All five of us entered the room, standing on a soft white rug. Suzy seemed to immediately gravitate towards the top of the bunk bed, while Holly sat down on the lower bunk. I pulled my suitcase over to the single bed, each of our wishes for sleeping arrangements granted. 

“This place is so much nicer than ours was!” Mai exclaimed exasperatedly. I shrugged, “They prepared it for three students who had never been here before. They probably want us to come back next year. They’ll probably charge our families more too for the nicer bedding, so they can get as much money off of us as possible.” Hana looked confused for a moment, then nodded. “Sadly it makes sense.”

“So do you guys wanna unpack?” Holly asked, opening her suitcase. I nodded, opening my own as well. I pulled out my socks and underwear, quickly stuffing them in one of the drawers under my bed. They started to chatter as they were unpacking, Mai and Hana helping hang up clothes in the closet. 

I plugged my extension cord into the wall behind my bed, draping it towards the rest of the room. I pulled my phone charger, computer charger, and a light grey lamp with a clamp on the end. I plugged each into the extension cord and clipped the lamp to my bedframe. I quickly tested the lamp, switching it off and on again, turning it towards where I would probably be laying in bed. I pulled out my Welcome to Nightvale poster, a white border surrounding a car driving into a forest, a ghost in the headlights.

At the bottom of my suitcase was a brown stuffed rabbit, which I pulled out to inspect further. There was a note from my mom “Don’t forget your bunny.” 

_ The last time I saw this thing I was still-- no. She isn’t worth it. _ I stuffed the bunny that wasn’t owned, but borrowed, into the bottom of the suitcase. I looked around the room for tacks, and found some in the left desk’s main drawer. I pinned the poster above my bed, making sure it didn’t get ruined by the nails holding up the shelves. 

“What’s the poster from?” Hana asked, nodding towards it. “Oh, I listen to this podcast called welcome to nightvale, and they came to a city I lived about three hours away from for a live show.” Hana looked confused, “A live… podcast?” 

“Yeah, the voice actors read the script for the episode on a stage for people. It was really cool. Some people cosplayed as the characters, and since it’s a podcast, the characters look like whatever your brain comes up with.” I pointed at all the different locations named on the poster, “They went all of these places and most of them were sold out. There’s a whole huge community behind it because the podcast is free.” Hana nodded. “That sounds like fun.” 

“I went with Kevin and a friend from back home. I think he brought the t-shirt he bought at the event too.” 

“So is Kevin your cousin or something?” Mai asked, hanging up Suzy’s second uniform in the closet. “Twin brother actually. We have the same taste in entertainment too, so it’s really nice to discuss new stuff that’s come out. It’s also pretty easy to get presents for each other on birthdays and stuff.” I pulled my uniform out of my suitcase, “Can I keep this in the closet so it doesn’t wrinkle as much?” I asked Suzy and Holly.

“Sure.” Holly responded, sitting on her bed, pulling out her phone and just looking at the screen.

“Missing Lieutenant Feathers?” Suzy asked, putting her school supplies in the desk. 

“Yeah.”

“Who’s that?” Mai asked, flopping down on my bed. I wasn’t opposed, but it was unusual to me for someone to be so casual with people she just met.

“He’s my pet pigeon back home. He’s my little tweetheart,” she sighed and smiled slightly, like the thought would melt her heart slightly, “Ross is my tweetheart too of course, but feathers was there first.” 

“OOOOO!” Mai turned over on my bed, feet in the air and hands holding her head up under her chin. “Tell me more.”

_ Tell me more, like does he have a car? _ I hummed the tune slightly as I continued putting my clothes in the drawers under my bed. Kevin’s constant singing while we did chores was a habit he had for a while, but one I just recently started adopting.

“Ross and I have been dating for a while. I knew him even before he came to our school.” You could hear Holly’s blush in her voice. “We met through the internet actually, I liked one of his animations that he put out, so I messaged him about it. We talked about art a lot, and his family just happened to be moving to our town.” 

“Awwww, that’s sweet. Also, I totally called it, didn’t I Hana?”

“No….”

“Oh, I must not of said it aloud. Well recently this guy Jared and I got together, and so far it’s been the time of my life.”

“The sparkly one?” Suzy asked, turning around in her desk. 

“Yep, that’s him.” 

“I think I know him actually, I um, used to be a model before I started dating Arin, so we might have done some sort of show together. He looks familiar.”

Mai sighed, “Well I’ve liked him for about a year now but once Hana came around, I got to hang out with him more and fall for him even harder -- Oh, Hana! Tell them about PBG!” Hana blushed slightly, but spoke unwarily. “PBG and I are dating too. He’s just such a sweet guy, and we were best friends as kids. I just feel so at home when I’m with him, I don’t know how to describe it. He actually has a...”

I personally wasn’t used to relationship chatter, I had only dated one person before.  _ And it hadn’t exactly worked out well for you. _ Oh shut up brain. 

“How about you Laurel?” I was zoned out, so I wasn’t sure who asked the question but it almost stopped me in my tracks.

“Yeah,” Mai added, her eyebrows moving up and down, “is there a lucky boy back home?” 

I blushed and quickly turned towards the group. “No, not really. I’ve never actually dated anyone before.”  _ They don’t need to know about her, it’ll make them feel guilty. They’ll probably think I’ll just hit on them constantly if I tell them I’m bi. It was only for a month anyway, so it doesn’t count. _

“Really?” Mai said, jumping off of my bed and grabbing my hands, holding them out in front of me. Mai’s olive green eyes focused in on my own murky hazel. “She isn’t lying.” Mai said while dropping my hands, crossing her left arm across her stomach and snapping at me with the other hand, her left elbow resting on her right hand. “We have a mission. And I thought Hana was the only main character!” I gave Hana a confused look around Mai and Hana rolled her eyes. Mai jumped in the air slightly again, her excitement almost leaking out of her ears.

“If you want us to of course.” Suzy added, standing up. “It would be something to do besides video games and schoolwork.” She walked up behind me and put an arm around my shoulders. “It won’t be that hard, you’re really pretty.” I blushed profusely and responded meekly, “Thanks… but for now finishing up unpacking would be great.” Hana and Holly giggled while Suzy and Mai both laughed aloud. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the full house kind of ending, I thought it seemed fitting for the game. Comment below parts you liked or disliked, just feedback in general is highly appreciated! Remember to bookmark it so you know when I've updated. Thanks!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry I haven't updated, I haven't had any free time to update the chapter, let alone sit down at a computer. I'll try to be better about this in the future, I just got reeeeally busy all the sudden.  
>  Welcome to the chaos that is the new Normal Block Grumps table

I finally tucked my last sweater intro the drawers below my bed. Mai and Hana had left earlier, “Holy shit! I forgot I had practice!” Mai said as she ran out of the room after checking her phone. Hana had a club meeting apparently, but she left early so she could be early to the meeting. Suzy was laying on her bed and scrolling through some sort of store, and Holly was sitting on her desk, doodling some sort of battle axe.  _ I’ll ask her about it later. _ I hated taking so long, but since we traveled from so far away it would be harder to ship things to us if we forgot them. 

I stretched out my spine, hearing a slight popping. I sighed my shoulders lower and turned to my new roommates. “Do you guys want to go get our books? I would hate getting in trouble tomorrow.” 

“Sure.” Holly stood up, popping her fingers. “I can bring our book list.” Suzy climbed off of her bunk. Suzy yawned, “It’s almost time for dinner anyway, so we can go on the way back. I don’t know about you guys, but I am hung-ry.” 

“I’ll bring my backpack so the books are easier to carry back.” We all exited the room, Holly locking the door behind us.

Something was off as we entered the cafeteria, everyone looking towards a table. As we got nearer to the food lines we noticed it was a set of seven green jackets, Kevin’s light brown hair, three yellow jackets, and five orange jackets. They were all sitting at one long, oval-shaped table. I placed a bowl of caesar salad on my tray, and grabbed a glass of coca cola. I walked over to the oval table with Holly, grabbing some napkins on the way to the table. Kevin waved us over and patted the seat next to him, while Holly sat a two seats down next to Ross. 

There were only two opens seats at the table, one at the end of the table, and the one Kevin had gestured me over to. Hana was next to Holly, and the boy across from Hana who sat next to Ross, his sparkle still surprising me, must be Jared. Danny was next to my open seat, Brian on his other side. From there it was Barry, Jon, PBG, and a yellow jacket with almost perfect cheekbones. Across from PBG was Shane, then next to him was Jirard, then next to Jirard was Arin. The boy Kevin had run into before was sitting across from my empty seat, the yellow jacketed boy with a snapback on his left, a guy in a green jacket with glasses on his right.

“Nice to meet you Laurel.” The bespectacled boy said to me as I sat down. “I’m Satchell,” he motioned to the younger boy next to him, “and this is Jimmy.”

“Uh, hi.” I responded. “Nice to meet you too.” 

“So Kevin was just telling us you were a fan of Steven Universe, and we had a question.” Jimmy asked, a gleam in his eye. “Who’s your favorite gem?”

“Oh, that’s easy. Definitely Pearl, I really like her design and character arc.” my voice got slightly louder from excitement. “I mean have you seen the episode where she goes to Empire City with Steven and Greg? The animation was just so pretty for her song, and there was so much emotion in the scene. The line “Now I’ve got to be there for her son” was absolutely killer. She loves Steven of course, but I never really thought how much of his presence in her life could affect her. 

It’s like in Harry Potter, where Severus could see Lily in Harry’s eyes and was an asshole to Harry because Harry just existed. The thing about that though is she actually loves and cares for Steven, being a very good motherly figure for him to rely on. 

I also really like her way of incorporating ballet into her fighting so it’s even more elegant. Her fights are just so fun to watch too.” I looked over slightly while talking and noticed Dan and Suzy watching me.  _ Damn I just geeked out so hard. _

“Uh, sorry. I’m just passionate about bird mom.” I said it to Satchell and Jimmy, but really it was meant for Dan and Suzy.  _ Sorry you had to subject yourself to that. _

“Psh,” Jimmy waved his hand in the air, “Don’t apologize. Pearl is my favorite too. Who was yours again Kev?”  _ Kev? _

I looked up over to Kevin, who either didn’t notice or care until I gave him a small, knowing smile. He blushed very slightly as he answered and I started to eat my salad. 

“Probably Peridot, she’s just so small and cute. Her redemption arc was pretty cool too.”  _ Good idea to not answer with a five page essay like I did. Even if it was a five page essay I wouldn’t of gotten more than a C+ with what that sounded like. _ Satchell shrugged, “Eh, she can be annoying sometimes. Personally, some episodes with her seem like they’re pandering towards the fans.”

“Yeah, I get it.” Kevin said. “So Hidden Block,” he nodded towards Jimmy, “and the Normal Boots,” he nodded towards Satchell,  “go against each other in competitions.” Jimmy nodded, “We have this “rivalry” everyone else in the school besides us cares about apparently.” He leaned in, chin resting on his fist like he was gossiping with his gal pals at brunch, “The entirety of Normal Boots are considered the most popular people in school actually. Us lowly Hidden Blocks aren’t even on their level.” His voice fluctuated from high to low, showing that he was kidding.

“A lot of us are good friends actually.” Satchell added. “PBG and Jeff are on the soccer team together, so they hang out a lot. Jimmy and I watch Steven Universe together, and Luke is just a great dude.” 

“And even though Ian doesn’t like to admit it, he’s almost friends with Hana.” Jimmy said, turning towards Satchell, “He really is the one who got her into your club, Satch.”

“Shane would of gotten over her joining eventually.”

There was a pause in the conversation, and I noticed Kevin was eating some sort of thick fish sticks and fries. “Really?” I asked, pointing to his meal, “Even a fourth of the way across the world and you still want to eat those?”

He shrugged, smiling. “There’s a reason he’s the Gorton fisherman. I think these are fish and chips anyway, considering the fries aren’t as salty as usual.”

“Or maybe this school doesn’t want to give you a heart attack.”

“I’ve got a metabolism, it should translate to heart health too.” 

“That’s not how it works. That’s like saying because I walk quickly, I can eat quickly also.”

“Well that one could be true.”

“Yes, but they’re unrelated. That’s the whole point.”

“Eh, fish sticks are worth it.” 

“Hey Satch,” Brian spoke, turned towards the four of us. Danny turned with him. “Do you happen to have all of the notes from the year so far?” Satchell paused for a moment, “Um… I think I have most of them, but Jirard will have all of them for sure. I could bring them to your room once I’m done with my shift at the library.”

“You work there?” I asked, my books for class tomorrow in mind. 

“Yeah, volunteer mostly. It helps pay for school.” 

“Holly, Suzy, and I still have to get our books for class. Could you lead the way?” 

“Sure, why not?” He shrugged

Dan turned to me, smiling kindly. “How was your first day?” I shrugged, “Pretty easy. I think I’ve already learned what we’re going over in some classes, so that’s good. How about you?”

“I dunno, it's fine I guess. I’ve never been that keen on school.” He shrugged. “I really think they let me transfer because I can sing pretty well.” 

“What do you sing?”

“Mostly covers of older songs. I have some ideas for comedy kind of stuff, but I dunno.” He pointed over his shoulder using his thumb at Brian. “He would need to help me write some music for me to fit lyrics to. He’s just really busy with his college courses.”

“He takes college courses?”

“Yep. So he can get his PHD quicker. He could of graduated by now actually if he wanted.” Dan leaned in slightly, whispering. “He would just miss us too much though, but he doesn’t know it.” 

A grumble came from the other side of Dan. “You know I can hear you, right?” Dan turned back around to Brian, and they started talking about something else. Everyone was talking about something around me. I observed mostly, watching how Jimmy and Kevin seemed to look at each other as the other turned away to look at something else, how Holly and Jared whispered to each other while drawing something I couldn’t see from here, how comfortably Jon, Arin, PBG, and Barry were getting along. 

I poked at my salad.  _ I know you’re nervous, but you really should’ve gotten more food. You’ll eat like a pig at breakfast tomorrow.  _

A deepish voice pulled me out of my stupor. “You okay?” It was the boy in the snapback. “Miss Shizuka usually isn’t like that, she must’ve had a rough night.“

“Uh, yeah, I’m fine. Hopefully she isn’t as angry with us tomorrow.” He nodded, “I’m Luke. My stage slash musical name is Yungtown though.” I must have given him a confused look, because he blushed slightly and continued. 

“I uh, rap about video games…. In my--spare time.”

Jimmy quickly saved him. 

“Oh yeah! Luke’s really good, they even play his music on the radio sometimes.” 

“Music?” Dan asked, himself and Brian turning towards the group of us.

“Radio?” Jon and PBG turned.

Half of the table turned towards the three of us.

“I was just saying how you guys play Luke’s music on PB and J.” 

“You guys have a radio show?” Suzy asked, looking at PBG and Jon.

“Yeah! We don’t really have a structure for it, sometimes we answer calls, sometimes we just talk about stuff.”

“Yeah.” PBG said, picking up the sentence. “It’s just a fun time. We actually have a show tonight.” 

Suzy snapped her fingers, “We don’t have a radio though.” 

“I brought one,” Dan said to Suzy, almost relieved he could continue in the rush of conversation. “So what would Brian and I have to do to get our music on this show?” PBG shrugged, “Record what you want and just give it to us. We could really play it whenever, but if you want it on we could just put it in the list of things to play. We would have to spread the music out so it doesn’t get repetitive, but we could.” 

“Really? That’s amazing! We’ll be on it as soon as possible.” Dan gave Jon and PBG a thumbs-up. 

Everyone went back towards their groups, Dan especially chattery. Luke focused back on me, “So far how’s it been? The transition and all.” I shrugged, “It’s not the worst. Jet lag is probably going to hit me pretty hard probably, and I don’t know a lot of the culture or what’s expected of you manners-wise.”

“That makes sense, we can help if you have any questions.”

“Thanks, I’ll probably need a lot of help.”

“Are you going to PBG’s soccer game tomorrow?”

“That’s tomorrow?” Kevin butted in, “That’ll be super fun, do you know who we’re playing?”

“Nope, not really, I’d ask PBG.” Luke continued, casually noticing his louder personality.

“Do you even know any teams in the area?” I asked quietly.

“Well it doesn’t matter anyway, either way we’ll cream them! Back in the U.S. our school’s football team  _ sucked _ . It’ll be fun to be on the winning side for once.”

“But the swim team won city 6 years in a row.” I monotonically sighed.

“All thanks to my help, obviously.” He rolled his eyes at me, he pulled Luke back into the conversation, “You’re Luke, right?”

“Yep.”

“Cool to meet you.”

There was a moment of silence, then Holly tapped my shoulder, asking, “Do you want to go get books now?”

“Sure,” I turned to the rest of the table, “Suzy, Satchell, are you guys done eating? Holly and I were thinking of getting books now.”

“Let’s go.” Suzy responded, getting up from the table, Satch grabbing his tray, I shouldered my backpack and grabbed my own tray, a third of the salad still in the bowl.  _ That’s okay, you still have breakfast tomorrow. _

__

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feedback is Hella Appreciated, so if you could give some, please do!


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